Jean Louis Barthou (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɑ̃ lwi baʁtu]; 25 August 1862 – 9 October 1934) was a French politician of the Third Republic who served as Prime Minister of France for eight months in 1913. In social policy, Barthou's time as Prime Minister saw the introduction (in July 1913) of allowances to families with children.[1]

Biography

Early life

Career

He served as Deputy from his home constituency. He was an authority on trade union history and law.

He was Prime Minister from 22 March 1913 to 9 December 1913. In social policy, Barthou's time as prime minister saw the passage of a law in June 1913 aimed at safeguarding women workers before and after childbirth.[2]

In 1934, he tried to create an Eastern Pact that would include Germany, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic states on the basis of a guarantee by France of the European borders of the Soviet Union and the eastern borders of the then Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union. He succeeded in obtaining entry of the Soviet Union into the League of Nations in September 1934.[4]

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Death

As Foreign Minister, Barthou met King Alexander I of Yugoslavia during his state visit to Marseille in October 1934. On 9 October, the King and Barthou were assassinated by Velicko Kerin, a Bulgarian revolutionary wielding a handgun.[5] One of the bullets struck Barthou in the arm, passing through and fatally severing an artery. He died of excessive blood loss less than an hour later. The assassination was planned in Rome by Ante Pavelić, head of the Croatian Ustaše, in August 1934. Pavelić was assisted by Georg Percevic, a former Austro-Hungarian military officer. France unsuccessfully requested extradition of Percevic and Pavelić.[6] This assassination ended the careers of the Bouches-du-Rhone prefect, Pierre Jouhannaud, and the director of the Surete Nationale, Jean Berthoin.[7]

A ballistic report on the bullets found in the car was made in 1935, but the results were not made available to the public until 1974. They revealed that Barthou was hit by an 8 mmModèle 1892 revolver round commonly used in weapons carried by French police.[8] Thus he was killed during the frantic police response rather than by the assassin.

Legacy

The assassination of Barthou and the King led to the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Terrorism concluded at Geneva by the League of Nations on 16 November 1937.[9] The Convention was signed by 25 nations, ratified only by India.[10] Barthou was granted a state funeral four days after his demise.

Ministries

Barthou's ministry, 22 March 1913 – 9 December 1913

Louis Barthou — President of the Council and Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

↑Matthew Graves, 'Memory and Forgetting on the National Periphery: Marseille and the Regicide of 1934' , PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 2010, p. 1 [1]

↑The Principle of Complementarity in International Criminal Law: Origin, Development and Practice by Mohamed M. El Zeidy, BRILL, September 15, 2008, p. 41

↑The Boundaries of the Republic: Migrant Rights and the Limits of Universalism in France, 1918-1940 by Mary Lewis, Stanford University Press, June 7, 2007, p. 114